It’s an exciting time for the Canadian Football League, unless you’re a special teams coach on the wrong end of yet another kick return touchdown.

The 2019 season is just 35 games old and already there have been 18 kick return majors; a league-record nine on kickoffs, six on punt returns, and three on missed field goals.

The record for an 81-game season is 22, set in 2004. During the CFL’s American expansion phase, the 117-game season of 1995 featured 24 kick return TDs, the all-time high for the league.

Even so, there was a return TD every 4.9 games that year. This season, the league is averaging a return major every 1.9 games, an unmatched frenetic pace. And the previous high after 35 games was just 12 in 1999.

So why the early surge this season? Most interested observers point first to the returners rather than rules, officiating standards or blocking schemes.

“I think there’s just a lot of good, strong, speedy returners in the league now,” said Edmonton’s special teams co-ordinator A.J. Gass. “When you look at it, it’s pretty apparent some of these guys are just ultra fast. They’re getting the edge and they’re gone. It’s a special year for sure.”

It’s a point echoed by Winnipeg’s head coach Mike O’Shea and Calgary’s special teams co-ordinator Mark Kilam, and it is one well taken.

“It’s never one thing on special teams when there are so many moving parts,” said Kilam, “but I think the first thing you’ve got to do is you have to credit the returners. There’s a lot of good returners in the CFL and when you watch those touchdown plays, there are unblocked players at the (point of attack) on several of them, and (the returners are) winning those battles. First and foremost you have to credit those guys. I would always start there, good returners making plays, making schemes better, making blocks better.”

There is no denying the strength of the return corps but with very few exceptions it’s a veteran group. The only CFL rookies to lug back a kick for a score this year are Winnipeg’s Lucky Whitehead and Janarion Grant, and Ottawa’s DeVonte Dedmon, who have combined for five TDs.

Nine of the return TDs, half the league total, were scored by players with three, five, six or seven years in the league: Brandon Banks, Brandon Rutley, Chris Rainey, Marcus Thigpen, Loucheiz Purifoy, Ryan Lankford and Terry Williams. And four of the TDs have come from second-year men Shakeir Ryan, Frankie Williams and Will Likely.

So there must be other things in play. What about rule changes?

“They’re always changing the rules to make the return game more exciting,” continued Kilam. “You can go back to (2014) when they said you couldn’t punt out of bounds and I think it was (2016) when they made the block of five, guards and tackles couldn’t leave the (line of scrimmage) until the ball is punted.

“They’re always trying to tweak it. But it is one of the best parts of the CFL. It’s my favourite part. The rules and the field and the game is set up for exciting plays in the return game.”

Keeping the cover team on the line of scrimmage until the ball is punted creates a ton of separation between the cover unit and the returner and that certainly contributes to longer returns.

But what about officiating? Are the zebras letting more go? Gass wasn’t convinced it was a factor in most cases.

“I still see plenty of flags flying on plays,” he said.

Whatever the case, the result has been a parade to the end zone, and no team has more return TDs than Hamilton’s five. B.C. and Winnipeg have three apiece.

“There is something in the mix and I don’t know what it is, but the more the merrier, man,” said Hamilton’s Frankie Williams, who has a pair. “Because that’s great competition. It’s exciting. It’s adversity. And I embrace it. I love it. We all do.”

There is nothing more jarring than a return TD, which used to be the exception, not the rule. In Edmonton, it still is a rarity. The Eskimos have yet to score one this season, and have allowed just one, to their Alberta rivals.

“We had a couple guys on that play, myself included, who fell for a bit of misdirection and it cost us on the boundary,” said James Tuck, the Eskimos’ co-leader with eight special teams tackles. “We’d like to have that one back.”

That said, the Eskimos pride themselves on sound, simple coverage and it seems to be working. Saskatchewan, B.C. and Calgary have all given up four return majors, most in the CFL.

“This season is really a message to cover teams,” Kilam said. “Cover with urgency, because the way it’s going this year, those returners can change the game.”

FRANKIE WILLIAMS STANDS OUT IN YEAR OF THE RETURNER

It takes three balls to return a punt right up the gut at full speed.

“That’s the biggest thing about it,” said Calgary’s special teams co-ordinator Mark Kilam. “Some of those guys, especially the new guys, they’ve got all that courage.”

Hamilton’s second-year return man Frankie Williams is one of those newish guys. In what has already become the year of the returner, the 5-foot-9, 190-pounder stands out and is respected around the Canadian Football League for his willingness to go vertical at all times, with little regard for the potential physical consequences.

“I got hit a couple times in college and I don’t think you can get hit any harder than that,” said Williams, who played at Purdue. “So with that, my motto is just to hit it, man. You’re either going to go down and score or you’re going to get a pretty tough collision.”

The 26-year-old from Tampa scored the first return TD in the CFL this season in a Week 1 win over Saskatchewan, taking a punt back 68 yards to the house. He scored the 18th one last week too on a 108-yard kickoff return against B.C. He has a hard time describing those TD jaunts.

“I really don’t know what goes on during a return. We’ll have our initial turn but when you’re running that fast, it’s all glare. Little flashes. See the flash, cut the other way. It’s kind of like being a running back.

“On the touchdowns, I pretty much black out, man. I’m usually not thinking. It’s just a shade of colour flashes in front of my eyes and I’m trying to go the opposite way. I just try to keep vertical at all times.”

Williams’ brazen north-south style conjures up images of the league’s all-time leader in kick return TDs, former Eskimo Henry (Gizmo) Williams, who scored 31 times and had almost that many called back on penalties during a 15-year career.

“(Frankie Williams) is that style,” said A.J. Gass, who played with Gizmo in Edmonton and is now the Eskimos’ special teams co-ordinator. “His runs are long and straight and he’s not afraid to hit a seam. I think that’s what we have in (Christion) Jones as well. He’s a guy who will run right into the teeth of the cover team and if he gets hit, he gets hit, if he breaks a tackle he’s gone.”

The other school of thought for a returner is to get to the edge of the coverage. It requires high-end speed.

“Speedy B has made a living doing that,” Kilam said of Hamilton’s Brandon Banks. “Ryan Lankford’s touchdowns are on the edge. You’ve got guys like Martese Jackson who can get the edge. I always felt the scariest guys are the ones who will press you right now.”

WEEK 10 PREDICTIONS

B.C. (1-7) at Winnipeg (6-2)

Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET

At some point this season, the Lions are going to hang onto a lead long enough to win another game but the prospects aren’t good at IG Field, where the Bombers are 4-0. The Lions keep inventing ways to lose, the Bombers find new ways to win, be it on special teams or defence when the Matt Nichols-managed offence is sputtering as it has been for a couple of weeks. The line is 11 but call it Winnipeg by seven.

Edmonton (5-3) at Toronto (1-6)

Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET

This is perhaps the toughest call of the week. The Eskimos are not a solid road team, the Argos are coming off an upset win over the Bombers and a bye week that followed. Then again, the Eskimos’ defence is stellar, the Bombers’ offence is the least productive in the league. The Esks don’t give up sacks, the Argos don’t get to the QB. So on balance this looks like Edmonton by seven.

Hamilton (6-2) at Ottawa (3-5)

Saturday at 4 p.m. ET

The Redblacks are slumping badly and a federal election is looming; could Ottawa be a more depressing place at this point in time? We kid. The nation’s capital is still lovely even when the Redblacks aren’t firing on many cylinders, except for the ones pointed at their own feet. They take a ton of penalties and have coughed up the second most turnovers and the most interceptions in the CFL. Hamilton by four.

Montreal (3-4) at Calgary (5-3)

Saturday at 7 p.m. ET

If Vernon Adams Jr. is healthy and at the controls — and the Als had yet to confirm their choice of starting QB earlier in the week — it could change the complexion of this game. However, the Stamps might also have QB Bo Levi Mitchell back from injury and that boost of energy could be the difference. Oddsmakers like the Stamps by a touchdown but this one should be closer. Calgary by three.

Record: 24-11

Dan Barnes: 20-11

Tim Baines: 4-0

WEEK 10 QUOTE AND NUMBERS

“I think this is the second game we’ve had that we’ve been up double-digits late in the fourth quarter that somehow we let slip away. It’s almost like the wins have butter on them or something.” – B.C. head coach DeVone Claybrooks after a 35-34 loss in Hamilton

14 – Combined margin of victory for all four games in Week 9. Ten of this season’s 35 games have been decided by four points or less, another 12 games by five to 10 points.

+50 – Differential between the league-leading 74 points Calgary has scored off turnovers, and the 24 points their opponents have scored off turnovers. The Als are the only team remotely close to the Stamps, at +21.

0 – Kick return TDs by Edmonton. In an extraordinary year that has already seen eight teams combine for 18 return TDs, the Eskimos are the only team without one. There were 15 return TDs last season, 16 in 2017, 14 in 2016 and 13 in 2015.

4 – Kick return TDs allowed by each of Calgary, Saskatchewan and B.C., most in the league. Neither Hamilton nor Ottawa has surrendered one yet. The Eskimos and Bombers have each been tagged for one, Toronto and Montreal for two apiece.

WEEK 10 RANKINGS

1. Winnipeg (1)

The Bombers put a disastrous 0-2 Eastern swing in the rear-view mirror after a hard-fought victory over Calgary; one keyed by two punt return TDs. They have a bunch of ways to beat you, and the diversity will continue to serve them well.

2. Hamilton (3)

Backup QB Dane Evans has been a decent placeholder for the injured Jeremiah Masoli. Evans, the red-hot Brandon Banks and the rest of the Tabbies eked out a one-point win over B.C. last week, which is cause for celebration and concern.

3. Saskatchewan (5)

The Riders have strung together four consecutive wins, or 3.75 if you’re really counting, and that has to be enough for them to join the conversation. That they’ve done it with their previous backup QB at the helm makes it an interesting one.

4. Edmonton (4)

The only CFL team without a kick return TD continues to get it done on the strength of the league’s stingiest defence. If the offence wakes up, look out above.

5. Calgary (2)

The Stamps are a beatable team without injured QB Bo Levi Mitchell and the momentum he seems to generate just by stepping on the field. Though Nick Arbuckle has filled in well enough, they’re vulnerable, as last week’s loss shows.

6. Montreal (7)

As if the Als haven’t been enough of a circus act this year, they get knee-capped by an inadequate CFL policy on weather delays and have now lost two, or rather 1.75 in a row. To show our disdain for said policy, we allow the Als a move up the rankings.

7. Toronto (8)

They took a week off to celebrate an upset win over the Bombers. OK, not really, but the Argos and James Wilder Jr. are back from the bye to host an Edmonton team that rarely wins on the road. And they’re just two wins out of contention in the East.

8. Ottawa (6)

Remember those halcyon days when the Redblacks were 2-0 and the summer was full of promise? A 1-5 slide into the gloom was triggered by QB injuries and inconsistency and Ottawa fans might rightly be hovering over the panic button.

9. B.C. (9)

The Lions could probably win a 42-minute game. Alas, all of theirs have gone the full 60, and too often they haven’t. The Leos let a 15-point lead get away in Hamilton last week and will be hard-pressed to stop the bleeding in Winnipeg.

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